International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

PCM cooling vest for improving thermal comfort in hot environment

Haneen Hamdan a, Nesreen Ghaddar a, *, Djamel Ouahrani b, Kamel Ghali a, M. Itani a
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, American University of Beirut, P.O. Box 11-0236, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
b
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A cooling vest containing phase change materials (PCM) can help in maintaining the skin temperature of
Received 23 July 2015 the covered parts at a comfortable level. A transient mathematical model of heat and mass transfer
Received in revised form through clothing layers containing PCM packets was developed. Two experiments were performed on a
5 December 2015
clothed heated cylinder in controlled environment to validate the model using two PCMs at different
Accepted 6 December 2015
Available online 1 January 2016
melting temperatures. Good agreement was found between model-predicted and measured tempera-
tures of the microclimate air between the cylinder and the PCM.
The validated fabric-PCM model was then integrated with a segmental bio-heat model to provide
Keywords:
Heat transport in clothing
realistic skin boundary conditions. The predicted core and mean skin temperatures agreed well with
Phase change material published experimental data of a human wearing a PCM-vest in hot environment.
Human body passive cooling The validated integrated bio-heat and fabric-PCM models were used to study the effect of the melting
Bio-heat modeling temperature of the PCM and its mass on the vest performance. It was found that a lower melting
temperature must be used when a fast cooling effect is desirable. Moreover, it was found that at fixed
melting temperature increasing the PCM mass increased the cooling duration.
© 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction high power consumption, and is ineffective in hot and humid

Workers performing tasks at high metabolic rates and in warm
or hot environments are subject to thermal strain that affect their
working endurance and productivity [1]. Working in hot environ-
ments at high metabolic rates for extended periods of time leads to
elevation in the core temperature and exhaustion. Therefore, pas-
sive cooling methods such as clothing ventilation and local cooling
have been used to combat heat stress and increase working
endurance [2].
In the last 15 years, research focused on design of personal
cooling systems using blower fans, circulating liquid or phase
change material (PCM) as a working microclimate medium [3e7].
These systems can be found in the market without clear optimized
performance measures or predictive models to assess effectiveness
in reducing thermal stress. Convection cooling systems are usually
equipped with a blower that forces air into the vest microclimate.
This system is quite inexpensive, but has limited cooling capacity,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ961 1 350000; fax: þ961 1 363283.
E-mail addresses: farah@aub.edu.lb (N. Ghaddar), djamel@qu.edu.qa
(D. Ouahrani).
weather [8]. Circulating liquid garments contain cold liquid flowing
in small capillary tubes in the garment, allowing for good heat
removal capability for a relatively long duration. However, their
heavy weight hinders the movement of workers thus reducing
productivity [8]. Cooling vests with incorporated phase change
materials (PCM), ice, paraffin or salt, are considered as the most
promising techniques. Ice-based cooling vests help in reducing heat
strain and improving productivity under warm environments
[9,10], but they have very low melting temperatures that may cause
erythema and thus discomfort [11]. The salt PCM is superior to ice
since it can be incorporated in the fabric structure in microcapsules
or as packs. A large variety of PCMs characterized by their non-
toxicity, high melting temperatures and large latent heat of fusion
exist [12]. The use of PCM microcapsules was not very successful
due to volume and heat capacity constraint and inability to
regenerate itself by ventilation in warm climates [13,14]. So, re-
searchers have focused on salt packs for optimum cooling vest
design under a specified work without affecting the wearer's
mobility [15e20].
Reinertsen et al. [21] studied experimentally the performance of
PCM material and the effect of its position (on the upper trunk or
covering the whole trunk) on thermal comfort, thermal sensation

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2015.12.001
1290-0729/© 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167
Nomenclature
A area (m2)
Cp thermal capacitance (J/kg K)
e thickness (m)
g gravitational acceleration (m/s2)
hfg heat of evaporation (J/kg)
had heat of adsorption (J/kg)
hsf latent heat of fusion (J/kg)
hm mass transfer coefficient (kg/m2 kPa s)
hf heat transfer coefficients (kg/m2 kPa s)
hc convective heat transfer (W/m2 K)
HD hot dry
HH hot humid
m mass (kg)
m_ a mass flow rate triggered by buoyancy forces
P vapor pressure (kPa)
PCM phase change material
r radius
Rd dry thermal resistance of the fabric (m2 K/W)
and sweat evaporation through clothing under simulated work
situations. They did experiments on people wearing well-insulated
clothing in a hot environment [21]. Their results showed that
although the skin temperature remained lower when the whole
trunk (front and back) was covered, thermal sensation was better
when only the upper front and back of the trunk were covered; due
to better sweat transport through the clothing system when using
lower number of PCM elements.
In another study by Bendkowska et al. [22], a thermal manikin
was used with skin temperature set at 34  C to investigate the
cooling effect of macro PCMs inserted in small packs on the inner
surface of the cooling vest to be worn under chemical protective
garments at ambient air of 20  C. Their results showed that vest
melting temperature and low initial temperature provide best
performance. Other findings by Gao et al. [23] showed that the
cooling effect depended on surface temperature of the manikin as
well as the PCM melting temperature. Human subject experiments
showed that while performing cycling under hot environments, the
chest skin temperature and the mean skin temperature increased
but remained lower by about 3  Ce5  C and 1  C, respectively, when
wearing the PCM vest. An empirical correlation by Gao et al. [24]
was derived for the PCM cooling effect and temperature gradient
between skin and PCM melting point, PCM mass, and covering area
using three types of PCMs with different melting points. Experi-
ments done on human subjects validated the findings of Gao et al.
[24] and showed that at lower melting temperature, a stronger
cooling effect was achieved on the torso resulting in lower mean
skin temperature [1]. The PCM cooling vest was effective in hot
humid (HH) and not in hot dry (HD) environments as reported by
Zhao et al. [25].
In addition to experimentation, Yifen et al. [26] studied the ef-
fect of PCM cooling vests numerically using simple human ther-
moregulation model to predict the surface heat. In order to find the
PCM inner surface temperature, they developed a mathematical
model based on enthalpy balance and the model compared well
with published experimental results on skin and core temperature
[26].
The previous work on assessing performance of PCM vests has
focused on empirical methods and the few modeling studies of
cooling vests have only addressed uniform PCM material at fixed
155
Re evaporative resistance of the fabric (m2 kPa/W)
R fabric regain
T temperature ( C)
w humidity ratio (kgw/kgair)
Greek symbols
a fraction of melted PCM
b volumetric thermal expansion ( C1)
r density (kg/m3)
n kinematic viscosity of air (m2/s)
Subscripts
air macroclimate air between the PCM and the
environment
aj microclimate air between PCM and skin
env environment
of outer fabric
if inner fabric
PCM phase change material
melting temperature. Thus the current literature modeling tech-
niques cannot be used to effectively design the new vest and
incorporate in the modeling non-uniformity of melting and weight
of salt packages.
In the aims of this work, a new simplified model of the fabric-
PCM as well as clothing microclimate inner air layer was first
developed. Second, the fabric-PCM model was validated by exper-
iments done under non-uniform PCM melting temperature and
weight, and with published experimental data. Third, the fabric-
PCM model was integrated with a segmental bio-heat model to
predict a realistic skin temperature based on human thermal
response [2,27,28]. Then the integrated fabric-PCM and bio-heat
model prediction of skin temperature was validated with pub-
lished experimental data. Finally, the effect of different PCM design
parameters (melting temperature and weight) on human thermal
response was investigated using the validated integrated fabric-
PCM and bio-heat models.
2. Research methods
In this work, a dynamic thermal model was developed for a PCM
cooling vest to simulate heat and mass transfer through the
clothing layers with PCM packets integrated within the air layers.
The model can predict the temperature of trapped air layers in
clothing for given ambient conditions and known PCM and clothing
properties. The fabric-PCM model was validated with experiments
performed using a clothed heated cylinder and with published
experimental data on clothed trunk.
The fabric-PCM model was then integrated with a multi-node
segmental and transient bio-heat model capable of predicting
accurately the segmental skin and core temperature of all body
segments [27,28]. The skin temperature obtained from the bio-heat
model was used in the fabric-PCM model ensuring continuity of
flux and skin temperature at any time. Moreover, the integrated
fabric-PCM model and bio-heat model prediction of skin temper-
ature was validated with published experimental data on human
subjects. A parametric study was then performed on the effect of
different variables (melting temperature and mass of PCM) on the
performance of the vest.
156 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167

2.1. Mathematical formulation of fabric-PCM model Mass and energy balance equations for heat and mass transport
were written for each fabric and PCM layer. The underlying clothing
2.1.1. Fabric-PCM model layer exchanges heat and water vapor transfer with the skin and the
The vest was made of a low evaporative resistance fabric to microclimate air layer. The regions of microclimate air layer be-
facilitate moisture transfer to the environment and it contained tween each PCM piece and the underclothing layer were taken to
pockets to hold the PCM packs. Fig. 1 depicts schematic of the be lumped. However, each region had its own conditions depend-
fabric-PCM cylindrical system showing (a) side view of the skin and ing on the PCM melting temperature and its position. On the other
the different clothing, PCM, and air layers, (b) a top view of the hand, the macroclimate air layer along the vest was basically at a
cooling vest with radii of the different layers, and (c) front view of lumped air temperature.
the cooling vest in which PCM patches are placed on the upper and The mass and energy balances for the underlying fabric layer are
lower segments of the cylindrical torso. The thin inner layer of respectively given by
cotton was necessary for preventing any direct contact of the PCM
Pn
with the skin. Above this layer was the inner air layer followed by dRif Pskin  Pif rskin Af  j¼1 APCMj Pair  Pif
the distributed PCM material of known quantity and known rif *eif * ¼ R *h * þ *R *h
dt e;if fg 1
þ 2*h rif Af e;if fg
þ 2h1
melting point temperature. The PCM was then covered by an outer 2 m 2 m
Pn
protective fabric layer, where there was also an air layer separating A
j¼1 PCMj P aj  Pif
the PCM and the outer fabric. For this arrangement, the PCM packet þ *R *h
Af e;if fg
þ 1
material was hanging between the inner and outer layers without 2 2h m

being bonded to either layer but it was closer to the underlying (1)
layer because of the Velcro fasteners. In such a case, the phase
change material directly affected the temperature of the trapped air  
dTif dRif Tskin  Tif rskin
layer between the inner underlying layer and the PCM packet while rif *eif * C  had ¼ R *
allowing vertical buoyancy motion in this thin trapped inner air dt dt d;if
þ 1 rif
2 2hf
layer adjacent to the PCM. Pn
Af  j¼1 APCMj Tair  Tif
Prior to wearing the vest, the PCM was assumed to be solid. In þ *R
Af 1
2 þ 2h
d;if
work conditions, the heat and moisture from the body surface is f
transferred to the microclimate air whose temperature depends on Pn
the amount of the transported heat and the enclosed PCM material. j¼1 APCMj Taj  Tif
þ *R (2)
The macroclimate air temperature was modeled as lumped air layer Af d;if
þ 1
2 2hf
with a uniform temperature, Tair, between the PCM packets and
behind the packets as was shown in Fig. 1. In the regions between where Tif is the inner fabric temperature, Tair is the temperature of
the PCM packets and the underlying clothing, the microclimate the air layer (macroclimate air) sandwiched between the outer
temperature was different than the surrounding macroclimate air fabric, the PCM, and the inner fabric as shown in Fig. 1, Taj is the air
temperature. temperature trapped between the PCM and inner fabric, Af is the

Fig. 1. Schematic of the fabric-PCM cylindrical model showing (a) a side view of the skin and the different clothing, PCM, and air layers, (b) a top view of the cooling vest with radii
of the different layers, and (c) front view of the cooling vest in which PCM patches are placed on the upper and lower segments of the cylindrical torso.
 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167 157

fabric area, Rd,if is the inner fabric dry thermal resistance, C is the
inner fabric capacitance, eif is the inner fabric thickness, Rif is the Tair  Taj 3
m_ a ¼ rair *g*b* *d *w (7)
fabric regain, P is the vapor pressure, hfg is the heat of evaporation, 12y
Re,if is the fabric evaporative resistance, hm is the mass transfer
where rair is the density of air, g is the gravitational acceleration, b is
coefficient of inner fabric (kg/m2 kPa s), hf is the heat transfer co-
the thermal expansion of air, d is the gap width, w is the width of
efficients of inner fabric (kg/m2 kPa s), had is heat of adsorption of
the PCM packet, and y is the kinematic viscosity of air.
the fabric, hc, is the convective heat transfer of the inner air
The mass and energy balances for microclimate air are respec-
enclosed between the inner and outer fabrics, APCM,j is the surface
tively given by
area of the PCM packet and n is the number of PCM packets
distributed inside the cooling vest.
dwaj X Pif  Paj rif   1
When there was no phase change (TPCM s PCM melting tem- rair *d* ¼ Re; *hfg
* þ m_ a * wair  waj * (8)
dt 1 r d*w
2 þ 2h
perature), the PCM was treated as a dry intermediate layer and its aj
m
energy equation was then similar to the fabric layer equations as
follows: dTaj  
rair *d*APCM;j *C ¼APCMj *hc * TPCM  Taj þ APCMj *hc *
dTPCMj   rif dt
  r  
mPCMj *CPCMj * ¼ hc *APCMj * Taj  TPCM * if
dt rPCM Tif  Taj * þ m_ a *Cair * Tair  Taj
raj
þ hc *APCMj *ðTair  TPCM Þ (3)
(9)
The ratio rif/rPCM, which is close to unity for small gap width, The mass and energy balances for macroclimate air are
takes into account the increase in the resistance due to dissimilarity respectively given be
in the areas of the different layers caused by the cylindrical ge-
ometry as reported by Ghali et al. [14]. Fig. 1(b) shows the radii of
the different layers. dw Pof  Pair X   1
During the phase change, TPCM was constant and it was equal to rair *eair * air ¼ R *h m_ a * waj  wair *
dt 1 d*w
2 þ 2hm
e; fg
the PCM melting temperature. With this assumption, the heat P
transport equation becomes Af  APCMj Pif  Pair rif
þ *R *h * (10)
Af e; fg
þ 1 rair
daj   rif 2 2hm
hsf *mPCMj * ¼ hc *APCMj * Taj  TPCM *
dt rPCM (4)
þ hc *APCMj *ðTair  TPCM Þ

    XA P  
dT dw PCMj   Af  APCMj Pof  Pair
rair *eair * C* air  hfg * air ¼ hc * Tof  Tair þ *hc * TPCMj  Tair þ *hc * Tif  Tair þ hfg *R *h
dt dt Af Af 1
2 þ 2hm
e; fg

P
Af  APCMj Pif  Pair rif X  
þ hfg * *R *h * þ m_ a *Cair * Tair  Taj
Af e; fg
þ 1 rair
2 2hm
(11)

The mass and energy balances for the outer fabric layer are To solve the above coupled equations, initial conditions for all
respectively given by clothing and air layers and PCM were needed. The skin temperature
was either assumed isothermal when testing the PCM vest model
dRof Penv  Pof Pair  Pof rif on a clothed cylinder or from integration with the bio-heat model
rof *eof * ¼ R *h þ R *h * (5) [27]. The fabric regain must be known initially and it was evaluated
dt e;of fg
þ 1 e;of fg
þ 1 rof
2 2hm 2 2hm from the fabric regain correlation to relative humidity of the
environment [30]. A first order numerical model was developed
  using standard numerical integration techniques.
dTof dRof Tenv  Tof Tair  Tof rif
rof *eof * C  had ¼ R þR * (6)
dt dt 1 1 rof
2 þ 2h 2 þ 2h
d;of d;of
f f
2.1.2. Numerical solution
The above mass and energy equations (1)e(11) were solved
where Tenv is the environment temperature, Tof is the outer fabric numerically using the explicit Euler forward method providing the
temperature, Rd,of is the outer fabric dry thermal resistance, C is the initial conditions such as the temperature and the pressure of all
outer fabric capacitance, eof is the outer fabric thickness, Rof is the the different layers of clothing and air, as well as the initial PCM
outer fabric regain, Re,of is the outer fabric evaporative resistance, temperature. Initially the air layers, inner and outer fabrics were
hm, is the mass transfer coefficient of the outer fabric (kg/m2 kPa s), considered to be at equilibrium with environment. First, the regain
hf is the heat transfer coefficients of the outer fabric (kg/m2 kPa s). of the inner and outer fabrics at time t þ Dt were calculated using
Assuming that the gap width between the PCM pack and the equations (1) and (5) respectively. Thus, the temperatures of the
underlying clothing layer to be small, the air flow triggered by inner and outer fabrics at t þ Dt can be calculated using equations
buoyancy forces was assumed to follow the Poiseuille flow and the (2) and (6), respectively. Using the interpolation function of regain
mass flow rate of air was represented by Bejan [29] as versus relative humidity of fabric [30], which is a fabric property,
158 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167
Table 1
PCM packet properties and dimensions used in the experiments.
Packet number Type of PCMs Dimensions of PCM
PCM-1 Salt 13.0 cm  7.0 cm  0.5 cm
PCM-2 Salt 7.0 cm  7.0 cm  0.5 cm
PCM-3 Gallium 7.0 cm  7.0 cm  0.5 cm
the relative humidity of the fabrics was calculated. At the same
time, the saturation pressure of the fabrics at the previously
calculated temperatures was calculated at t þ Dt using psychro-
metric formulas of Hyland and Wexter [31]. Therefore, the vapor
pressures of the fabrics at t þ Dt step were found.
For the microclimate and the macroclimate air layers, the hu-
midity ratios and the temperatures at the new time t þ Dt were
found after calculating the air flow rate due to buoyancy in the
different microclimate layers using equation (7). For the updated
temperature evaluation of the PCMs, at each time step, they were
compared against the PCM melting temperature and accordingly,
either the temperature at the t þ Dt was calculated from the single
phase equation (3), or kept constant while the PCM melted fraction
(a) was calculated during change of phase (melting) using equation
(4).
2.2. Validation of fabric-PCM model
2.2.1. Experimental methodology using clothed heated cylinder and
PCM packets
The aim of the experiment was to: (1) check the validity of
fabric-PCM model in predicting lumped temperatures of the
microclimate air layer (adjacent to the clothed heated cylinder) and
the macroclimate air layer (adjacent to the environment) during
the melting phase (experiment 1) and (2) to test the ability of the
fabric-PCM model in handling non-uniform microclimate envi-
ronments due to the presence of two types of PCMs at different
locations and predicting accurately their associated temperatures
(experiment 2).
2.2.1.1. PCM packages. Two types of phase change material were
used in the experiments; the first material was a salt mixture of
sodium sulfate and water known as Glauber's salt [24] and the
second material was pure Gallium. The PCM used in experiment 1
was made of salt and it is referred to as PCM-1. In experiment 2, two
different PCM packets were used; PCM-2 and PCM-3, as listed in
Table 1 including packets' dimensions and physical properties.
PCM-2 is of the same salt of PCM-1 but differs in packet dimensions
while PCM-3 is made of pure Gallium.
The Salt-PCM was made of a non-toxic, non-flammable Glaub-
er's salt inorganic mixture sealed inside an aluminum wrapper.
However, there are some drawbacks of inorganic salt mixtures used
as heat storage since they experience phase separation, phase
segregation and lack of thermal stability [32]. Segregation is pre-
vented with the addition of polymer to the salt to hold the salt
hydrate together [33]. In addition, adding polymers to the salt hy-
drates improves thermal stability and phase separation [34]. The
Salt-PCM used in the experiment has a specified melting temper-
ature of 28  C (as provided by the manufacturer (Swede Products©))
[35] (see Table 1). The second phase change material used was pure
Gallium wrapped in a thick polyethylene bag, which is a soft metal
that melts at 29.76  C and its density is more than four times that of
the Salt-PCM.
2.2.1.2. Experimental setup. Two experiments were conducted on a
clothed heated cylinder setup placed in a controlled climatic
Tmelting ( C) r (kg/m3) Cp (kJ/kg K) hsf (kJ/kg)
28.00 1450 3.10 126
29.76 5910 0.37 80.40
chamber set at 28 ± 0.5  C and relative humidity of 50 ± 2% [36,37].
The first experiment (experiment 1) used one PCM packet (PCM-1).
The second experiment (experiment 2) used two different PCM
packets (PCM-2 and PCM-3).
A copper cylinder of a diameter of 0.104 m and a length of
0.215 m was wrapped with metallic resistance heaters Omega-KH-
1012 to produce constant heat flux condition per heater at the
cylinder surface. The heat fluxes from the heaters were regulated
independently such that an almost uniform mean steady temper-
ature of 37  C ± 0.5  C was attained for each strip heater due the
high conductivity of the surface heaters. The heated cylinder was
guarded with two concentric thin metallic screens of 2 cm open
squares of 0.215 m in length and 0.108 m and 0.128 m diameters
respectively to hold the PCM packets (PCM inner and outer guards).
In addition, a third guard made of metallic mesh cylinder was
added to hold the outer fabric cylinder shape at 0.215 m long and
0.14 m (fabric guard). The clothed cylinder with its guards were
fixed on an insulated support platform using Styrofoam material at
the bottom of the vertical clothed cylinder to ensure that minimal
heat and mass transfer take place at the lower end. Fig. 2 shows the
schematic of the clothed heated cylinder experimental setups for
(a) experiment 1, (b) experiment 2, and (c) top view of the cylinder.
The cotton fabric used in the two experiments was obtained
from Testfabrics Inc. (Middlesex, NJ 08846) [38], and was made of
unmercerized cotton duck, style #466 of thickness of 1 mm. The
permeability of the clothing was measured by SDL MO2IA air
permeability tester with percent deviation in repeated measure-
ments of ±0.8% and accuracy of 0.1 l/(m2 s) and was found to be
0.05 m3/m2 s. The tester is characterized by fast, simple, and ac-
curate determination of the air permeability of all kinds of flat
materials (SDLAtlas). The fabric dry thermal resistance and evap-
orative resistance were measured using the sweating guarded
hotplate (Model 306-200/400) with an error less than 0.1%. The
measured dry thermal resistance and evaporative resistance of the
fabric used were 0.03 m2 K/W and 0.0005 kPa m2/W, respectively.
In experiment 1, the PCM-1 packet used had a coverage area
representing 13% of the clothed heated cylinder. On the other hand,
experiment 2 used PCM-2 and PCM-3 packets each covering 7% of
the clothed cylinder surface area. The two packets in experiment 2
were inserted vertically above each other in the clothed cylinder
with Gallium being in the lower location (see Fig. 2). Therefore,
experiment 2 was conducted in order to examine the accuracy of
the model predictions of microclimate and macroclimate temper-
atures when used with different PCM packets of different proper-
ties (Gallium versus Salt-PCM) set in the arrangement shown in
Fig. 2(b).
In both experiments, the configuration of the clothed cylinder
allowed the formation of two air layers, the microclimate air
confined between the PCM packets and the heated cylinder and the
macroclimate air confined between the PCM packets and the fabric.
T-type thermocouples were used to measure the temperatures of
the air layers and the PCM packets during the experiment. The
temperature of the microclimate air layer was measured by two
thermocouples mounted on the mesh cages at two positions in the
region adjacent to the PCM packets for the experiments 1 and 2.
Whereas, the temperature of the macroclimate air layer was
 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167
Fig. 2. Schematic of (a) the clothed heated cylinder setup and the location of the thermocouples for experiment 1, (b) the clothed heated cylinder setup and the location of
thermocouples for experiment 2, (c) top view of the clothed cylinder for both experiments showing dimensions of each component.
measured using six thermocouples mounted adjacent and far from
the PCM packets (see Fig. 2 for location). A T-type thermocouple
was inserted inside the salt and Gallium packet at the inner side
that is facing the heated cylinder in order to detect the onset of
melting and the packets were carefully sealed using epoxy to pre-
vent leakage during melting. The three metallic cages holding the
PCM packets and the outer fabric were held tight before placing
them around the heated cylinder. The thermocouples were also
placed in their appropriate position on the cages.
2.2.1.3. Experimental protocol. In experiment 1, PCM-1 packet was
kept at 20  C to solidify all night in a climatic room in an open
wooden box. Initially, the heated cylinder was kept for 10 min to
reach the desired steady surface temperature, and then the PCM
packets at 20  C was brought in its insulated wooden box into the
experimental climatic room and immediately taken out of the box
and placed in the designated location around the cylinder. This step
took less than 1 min while the data was being logged. The average
value of the thermocouple readings of each of the two air layer
temperatures was computed. The thermocouple readings and the
climatic chamber conditions were monitored in time by a data
acquisition system using LabVIEW software. The temperatures
were sampled at 1 reading/s and were averaged and recorded every
60 s with an accuracy of ±0.1  C.
In the second experiment, PCM-2 and PCM-3 packets (salt and
Gallium) were placed vertically with a 7.5 cm distance between
them. This configuration allowed the formation of a microclimate
air layer behind each of the two PCM packets. The two PCMs were
kept all night to solidify at 20  C. Similar to the protocol of the first
experiment; the two PCMs were inserted in their appropriate lo-
cations directly after the heated cylinder reached the desired
159
temperature. The readings of the thermocouples were sampled at 1
reading/s and were averaged and recorded every 60 s with an ac-
curacy of ±0.1  C.
2.2.2. Validation of fabric-PCM model with literature
The temperature profile of the PCM predicted by the fabric-PCM
model was validated with published experiment presented by Gao
et al. [24]. In their work, an experiment was done on a thermal
manikin with constant skin temperature of 38  C placed in a
chamber also at 38  C. The total area of the manikin was 1.77 m2
and the torso was 0.57 m2. The thermal manikin was dressed with
clothing of 0.431 m2  C/W total insulation without the vest that was
placed between a T-shirt and RB90 underwear firefighting
ensemble. The cooling vest contained 21 PCM packets and its total
weight was 1.973 kg. The covering area of the PCMs was 0.2054 m2,
which constituted 36% of the total area of the torso. The PCM was
kept at 20  C overnight to solidify. The melting temperature of the
PCMs was 32  C and the latent heat of fusion was 189.4 kJ/kg. The
temperature of the inner and the outer surfaces of the PCM were
measured and the average temperature was calculated [24]. In or-
der to compare the experimental results and the predicted ones by
the fabric-PCM cylindrical model, a simulation was performed at
the exact experimental conditions published by Gao et al. [24] and
the temperatures of the PCM around the torso were compared since
the torso can be modeled as a clothed cylindrical segment.
2.3. Integration of fabric-PCM model with bio-heat model and
validation with literature
In order to set more realistic thermal boundary conditions for
the fabric-PCM model, the transient bio-heat model of Karaki et al.
160 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167

Fig. 3. Flow chart of the integration of the fabric-PCM model with the Bio-heat Model.

[28] was used. Their model predicted the instantaneous skin tem-
perature of the different body segments. The bio-heat model of
Karaki et al. [28] divided the body into 31 segments including the
division of the torso into eight segments; upper left chest, upper
right chest, upper left back, upper right back, lower left chest, lower
right chest, lower left back, lower right back [14]. Note that the
upper torso has a larger surface area (0.402 m2) than lower torso
(0.246 m2). This division of the torso into eight segments allowed
variations in the skin temperature across the torso as well as the
use of non-uniform environmental boundary conditions. These
boundary conditions may include different exposure of each
segment to ambient temperature, clothing, and different PCM
packet properties. The fabric-PCM vest model was integrated with
each of the eight torso segments and thus the number and the
melting temperature of the PCM packets were specified for each
segment. When the PCM covering area did not match the area of
the torso skin segment, the same segment skin temperature was
used for parallel heat transfer paths into the fabric layer and the
PCM-fabric layer while also accounting for radiation heat transfer
[14,39]. At first, the appropriate ambient conditions were defined in
the bio-heat model in addition to the clothing type in each body
segment.
The bio-heat model was run at first without the cooling vest to
calculate the different physiological outputs such as skin and core
temperatures. These values were used as initial conditions after the
bio-heat model was integrated with the fabric-PCM model. Then, at
 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167 161

Fig. 4. (aec): Plots of the variation over time of the averaged experimental readings and the model predictions of (a) the salt PCM-1 temperature (b) the microclimate air layer
temperature and (c) the macroclimate air layer averaged temperature before melting and during the melting phase.

each time step, the skin temperature and the vapor pressure at the
skin of the eight segments was calculated depending on the
microclimate air temperature predicted by the fabric-PCM vest
model and assuming only water vapor transfer through the fabric
and that the PCM was impermeable. Thus, the evolution of the
instantaneous change of the state of the PCM directly affects the
skin conditions and hence affects whole body response due to the
continuous change in the medium surrounding it. Therefore, the
total losses from the different parts from the human body and the
torso in particular were predicted at each time step. The coupling
methodology between the PCM vest model and the bio-heat model
in each time step is illustrated in Fig. 3.
Validation of the integrated fabric-PCM and bio-heat model was
done by comparison with a published experiment of Chou et al. on
human subjects wearing cooling devices in a relatively hot
environment [20]. Their work investigated the effectiveness of ice-
packs (ICE) and PCM cooling vests with PCM initial temperature at
20  C (PCM-20 case) by performing experiments on each type and
comparing it against a no-cooling device (CON) case.
In the CON and PCM-20 cases [20], the subjects wore firefighting
protective clothing of 1.53 clo and basic undergarments. The PCM-
20 case included a cooling vest with 16 packs distributed on the
chest and back, with a melting temperature of 28  C. The latent and
the specific heat were 35.1 cal/ C$g and 0.69 cal/ C$g respectively,
and the total surface area of the PCM-20 packets was 1.792 cm2. The
average weight of the subjects was 62.5 kg and their average
maximum oxygen consumption was VO2max ¼ 45.8 ml/min$kg. The
total duration of the experiment was 50 min. For the first 10 min,
the subjects rested in a pre-test room at 25  C, 50%e60% relative
humidity. Then they entered the test room where they rested for
162 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167

Fig. 5. (aec): Plots of the averaged experimental readings and the model predictions of (a) the Gallium PCM-3 temperature, (b) the microclimate air layer temperature adjacent to
salt PCM-2 and microclimate air layer adjacent to PCM-3 (Gallium) and (c) measured average macroclimate air temperature.

another 10 min at 30  C, 50% relative humidity. Afterward, they
performed cycling on a bicycle ergometer for 30 min at 55% VO2max
followed by a 10 min recovery period.
The performed simulations using the integrated fabric-PCM and
bio-heat model simulated the experimental published conditions
of Chou et al. in the CON and the PCM-20 cases [20]. The rectal
temperature was compared against the average core temperature
predicted by the model. Moreover, the published experimental skin
temperature was compared against the average skin temperature
calculated using DuBois's equation [40]. In the experiment the
subjects faced a transition from resting to cycling during which
their metabolic rate increased. The equation of the oxygen uptake
for a moderate exercise proposed by Barstow et al. [41] was con-
verted to metabolic rate and was used in the bio-heat model to
account for the gradual increase in the metabolic rate during the
transition from rest to work.
2.4. Study of the effect of PCM melting temperature and mass on the
performance of the cooling vest
The integrated fabric-PCM and bio-heat model was used to
perform a parametric study to understand the effect of different
physical parameters on the performance of the cooling vest at a
metabolic rate of 1 and a clothing insulation equivalent to 0.53 clo.
The melting temperature of the phase change material is an
important parameter to study because it directly influences the
temperature of the microclimate air near the skin due to their
proximity throughout the melting phase. Three melting tempera-
tures were investigated, 21  C, 24  C and 26  C. All PCMs were
considered to have the same initial temperature, which was taken
to be 20  C. These three cases were compared with the base-case
scenario. The three vests contained the same number of PCM
packets; the total cooling area was 0.22 m2, which represented 47%
 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167
of the whole torso. Therefore, the upper and the lower torso had the
same number of PCM packets. The four simulations were con-
ducted at the same ambient conditions of temperature 32  C and
50% relative humidity and a comparison was done on the torso heat
loss and torso mean skin temperature.
The mass of the phase change material is also a parameter that
affects the performance of the cooling vest. Two cases were simu-
lated at the same total covering area but different weights (thick-
nesses of PCMs). The weight of Vest-A was 0.88 kg while that of
Vest-B was 1.7 kg. The two vests had the same melting temperature
of 21  C for the PCM at initial temperature of 20  C while the PCM
packets were covering 23% of the area of the torso. The comparison
was based on the cooling duration of the vest and the cooling rate.
3. Results and discussion
The validation of the proposed simplified model of the fabric-
PCM cooling vest model is presented against our experimental re-
sults and against published experimental data. This was followed
by the validation of the integrated bio-heat and fabric-PCM model
against published experimental data on human subjects, and
further conducted a parametric study to analyze the effect of the
different PCM design parameters such as melting temperature and
PCM mass on human thermal response.
3.1. Results of experimental validation of fabric-PCM model using
clothed cylinder setup
This section compares the experimental results of measured
temperatures of various layers against those predicted by the
fabric-PCM model for experiment 1 and 2. In each case, the clothed
heated cylinder with the PCM geometry was simulated at the same
experimental environment temperature and for different PCM pa-
rameters to compare the temperature values of microclimate and
macroclimate air predicted by the model and values recorded in the
experiments.
Fig. 4 shows the variation over time of the averaged experimental
readings and the model predictions of (a) the salt PCM (PCM-1)
temperature (b) the microclimate air layer temperature and (c) the
Fig. 6. A plot of the variation in time of the PCM temperature in the published experiment [24] and the value predicted by the current fabric-PCM model.
163
macroclimate air layer averaged temperature before melting and
during the melting phase for melting PCM temperature of 28  C. The
temperature profile of the salt PCM packet increased from an initial
temperature of 20  C to reach the melting temperature in about
55 min (see Fig. 4(a)). The onset of the PCM melting at about 55 min,
was predicted well by the model; however, the experimental values
of the PCM temperature were slightly higher than the predicted ones
reaching 29  C at the end of the experiment. This could be related to
the fact that the salt PCM does not have the characteristic of uniform
melting point found in pure substances. It could also be related to the
model assumption of lumped uniform temperature of the PCM that
may not account for the slight non-uniformity existing in the
experiment (one PCM packet side facing heated cylinder and the
other side facing outer fabric). However, there was good agreement
in general between the measured and predicted values of micro-
climate and macroclimate air temperatures. Examining the micro-
climate air, which resembled the air gap between the PCM and the
heated cylinder, the maximum error was found to be about ±3.5%,
corresponding to 1.06  C. When comparing the macroclimate tem-
perature predicted by the model and the average temperature of the
six thermocouples, it can be seen that the model predicted the
macroclimate temperature better prior to the melting phase. The
experimental values of the macroclimate air temperature was
slightly greater than that of the predicted one by the model because
it was affected by the outer surface of the PCM packet that experi-
enced a delayed onset time of melting compared to the inner surface.
The maximum error for the macroclimate air trapped between the
PCM and the outer fabric was around 3% (corresponding to ±0.88  C)
during the melting phase.
Fig. 5 shows the experimental temperatures and the model
predictions of (a) the Gallium (PCM-3) temperature, (b) the
microclimate air layer temperature adjacent to PCM-2 (salt PCM)
and microclimate air layer adjacent to PCM-3 (Gallium) and (c)
macroclimate air temperature where the average of the experi-
mental values of the six thermocouples was plotted. Examining the
temperature profile of Gallium (see Fig. 5(a)), it was observed that
during melting, the PCM had a constant melting temperature since
it is a pure substance unlike the salt PCM-2 (see Fig. 4(a) of
Experiment 1). Before the start of the Gallium PCM-3 melting, there
164 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167
was a slight difference between the experimental values and those
predicted by the model, since the model treated the Gallium PCM-3
packet as lumped although its weight was much larger than the salt
PCM-2 packet. However, the profiles of the measured and predicted
temperatures of the microclimate and macroclimate air layers were
in good agreement. The two microclimate air temperatures were
predicted well despite the non-uniformity in melting temperature
and thermal capacities of the two different PCM packets (PCM-2
and PCM-3). It was shown that the temperature of the microclimate
air near the Gallium PCM-3 was higher than that near the salt PCM-
2, which was expected because of the higher initial and melting
temperature of the Gallium PCM-3 throughout the experiment.
3.2. Results of fabric-PCM model validation with literature
The variation in time of the PCM temperature in the published
experiment of Gao et al. [24] and the value predicted by the current
fabric-PCM model are shown in Fig. 6, where good agreement was
Fig. 7. (aeb): Plots of published experimental data [20] and the model predictions of (a) the mean skin temperature and (b) the rectal temperature for the case when (PCM-20) is
present and for the case without the cooling device (CON).
found between experimental and predicted values. The maximum
errors between the model lumped PCM temperature and the re-
ported experimental results on outer, average and inner PCM sur-
face temperatures were 3.8%, 3% and 6%, respectively. Note that in
the fabric-PCM model, the PCM was assumed lumped with one
value representing the single phase and this value was close to the
average temperature of the experimental values at a maximum
error attained of ±0.3  C.
3.3. Integrated fabric-PCM and bio-heat model validation with
literature
The ability of the integrated fabric-PCM and bio-heat model in
predicting accurate skin temperature was validated with published
experimental data of Chou et al. [20] on rectal temperature and skin
temperature that were compared against the model-predicted core
temperature and mean skin temperature, respectively.
 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167 165

Fig. 8. A plot of the variation in time of the mean skin temperature of the torso for the base case without PCM and for PCM vest at three melting temperatures.

Fig. 7 shows the published experimental data and the model
predictions of (a) the mean skin temperature and (b) the core
temperature. The predicted values of the integrated bio-heat model
agreed well with those measured by the experiment. The
maximum error attained in the mean skin temperature was 0.75  C
at the recovery period for CON case and 0.64  C for the PCM-20
case. On the other hand, the maximum error attained for the core
temperature was 0.3  C for the CON case and 0.15  C for the PCM-20
case.
3.4. Parametric study using integrated fabric-PCM and bio-heat
models
The variation in time of the mean skin temperature of the torso
for the base case without PCM and for PCM vest at three melting
temperatures is shown in Fig. 8. It is noticed that at the melting
temperature of 21  C of the PCM vest, the skin temperature
decreased by about 0.7  C. The reduction in the skin temperature
over time was reflected on the sensible losses from the skin as
shown in Fig. 9. It is observed, in the three vest cases, that a sudden
increase in the sensible losses occurred at the beginning, due to the
low initial PCM temperature causing a high temperature gradient
between the skin and the microclimate air adjacent to the PCM. The
decrease in the losses in the second stage, which was before the
onset of melting, was due to the increase in the temperature of the
PCM and thus the microclimate air. During melting, the skin tem-
perature decreased and hence increased the gradient with the
microclimate air that almost stabilized due to the constant melting
temperature of the PCM. This has led to a slight increase of sensible
heat losses during this period of the PCM change of phase.

Fig. 9. A plot of the variation in time of the sensible heat loss of the torso for the base case without PCM and for PCM vest at three melting temperatures.
166 H. Hamdan et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 102 (2016) 154e167
Table 2
Comparison of onset of melting, cooling duration and average sensible losses from torso during the melting phase between Vest21, Vest24 and Vest26 at an initial temperature
of 20  C of the different PCMs.
Case Melting temperature ( C) Onset of melting (min)
Vest21 21 1.7
Vest24 24 8.9
Vest26 26 15
Table 3
Comparison between two vests of different mass at an initial temperature of 20  C of the different PCMs.
Case Mass (Kg) Onset of melting (min)
Vest-A 0.88 1.8
Vest-B 1.76 3.65
Table 2 presents the onset time of melting of the PCM, the total
time for complete melting and the average sensible loss from the
torso during the melting phase. It was observed that as the melting
temperature increased, the time needed for the PCM to start
melting was delayed and the total time of melting was prolonged.
As for the cooling rate, it was also noticed that a larger cooling rate
was achieved at lower melting temperature. It was deduced from
this comparison that when a faster cooling effect is needed, a lower
melting temperature is desirable, however, for a prolonged cooling
duration, a higher melting temperature is recommended. From
Table 3, it is shown that the mass of the cooling vest had a direct
effect on the cooling duration of the vest and did not have an effect
on the cooling rate.
The parametric simulation results revealed that a lower melting
temperature is favored when fast cooling is needed. Moreover, the
covering area affected the cooling rate while the mass of the PCM
(thickness) affected the total duration of melting. These findings
were similar to the experimental findings by Gao et al. [24]. Future
work will address investigating the effectiveness of placing the
PCM packets on both or either of the upper and the lower parts of
the torso with different weights and melting temperatures that are
more adapted to human body skin temperature and heat losses
non-uniformity.
4. Conclusions
A mathematical model was developed and was validated by
experiment to simulate heat and mass transfer in a cooling vest
containing salt PCM packets. The model predictions of the air layers
temperatures showed good agreement with the experimental
findings with slight differences due to the lumping assumption of
the air layers and the PCM taken by the model. The temperature
profile of the PCM was also validated with published data. This
model was then integrated with a segmental bio-heat model to set
accurate boundary conditions and validated with published
experiment done on humans wearing PCM cooling vest.
A simulation study was done to investigate the effect of different
parameters such as melting temperature and mass of the PCM on
the performance of the vest. The results revealed that when a faster
cooling effect is needed, a lower melting temperature is desirable,
however, for a prolonged cooling duration, a higher melting tem-
perature is recommended. Moreover, the mass of the PCM (thick-
ness) affected the total duration of melting.
The integration of the fabric-PCM model and the segmental bio-
heat model is a valuable tool to predict the instantaneous response
of the human body affected by the presence of PCMs on different
parts of the torso, thus predicting non-equal skin temperature of
torso segments. This can be used to optimize the weight of the vest
Total time of melting (min) Average cooling rate (W)
90 25
120 21.7
180 19.5
Total time of melting (min) Average cooling rate (W)
79.2 18.42
162 19.17
yet maintaining its performance in future work. Heat stress indices
[42], thermal sensation and comfort models [43] may be used in the
future as indicators to comfort and performance enhancement in
the presence of the cooling vest.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of
the Qatar National Research Funds (a member of the Qatar Foun-
dation), Grant # NPRP 7-486-2-185, State of Qatar.
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